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A DEPUTY Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, says the Ghana Education Service (GES) is surprised at the posture of National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) following their strike action over unpaid salary arrears.

The NAGRAT declared an indefinite strike last Wednesday, April 4, 2018. The action is in protest of the government’s continued refusal to pay six years’ salary arrears owed its members.

The declaration comes days after final year students in Senior High Schools began writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations.

Speaking at a press conference, president of the association, Eric Angel Carbonu, who declared the strike, noted that despite countless pledges by the government to prioritise the teacher in the education sector, no action had been taken in that regard.

“Instead what see are…maneuvering and manipulation employed by the Ministry of Finance and the government to drag its feet and possibly refuse to pay the arrears at all,” he said.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, the Ofoase-Ayirebi MP said the monies had been paid and would hit the accounts of the teachers in the course of the week.

“GH¢40 million had been released as at the end of March and the Controller General has assured them that monies would be paid by 4th and 5th of this month. The delay in paying would need to be worked on and made to work at speed. We have done what is due on our side. The GES is the employer of NAGRAT and to my understanding, the GES have made NAGRAT aware of the release of the money. The GES has been updated on the issue and they are surprised with what is going on,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Carbonu has told ‘Morning Starr’ that “The ministry has not engaged us since we issued our intentions to go on strike.”